Joe Biden hasn’t told Obama about new gun plans

Biden said he 'hasn’t really discussed' his plans with the president yet. | Reuters

During the meeting, Biden and an aide ticked through polling data for a handful of senators targeted by gun control groups after the background checks vote failed. To the law enforcement officials, he cited polling that shows Sens. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), Mark Begich (D-Alaska), Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) have seen precipitous drops in their approval ratings since last month’s vote.

Biden also told the group that he plans to travel to those senators’ home states to push for background checks.

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“He’s going to go on a road trip,” said Aaron Kennard, the executive director of the National Sheriffs Association. “He’s going to meet with the constituents in the states that voted against it and see if he can rally some support.”

Adler said Biden was optimistic throughout the meeting.

“The point he was trying to illustrate was we shouldn’t despair,” Adler said. “He said the outcome shouldn’t be a disincentive for us to move forward.”

Biden also boasted that he won the vote of Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), a red-state Democrat facing reelection in 2014, thanks to longstanding family relationships.

“He took credit for Landrieu,” said one law enforcement official who attended the meeting. “He said, ‘I used my long relationship with her father and her brother and her to get her to vote with us.’”

Landrieu’s father, Moon Landrieu, served in Congress, as New Orleans mayor and as secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Her brother, Mitch Landrieu, is now the mayor of New Orleans. Biden headlined a New Orleans fundraiser for Mary Landrieu in January.

Biden didn’t suggest when a new White House gun control push might begin, but officials with gun control groups and aides to senators working on the issue said no action is likely until after the Senate is finished working on comprehensive immigration reform.

Baltimore County Police Chief Jim Johnson, who attended the session, said Biden is “not inclined to weaken” the Manchin-Toomey expanded background checks proposal.

But Johnson said Biden did make it clear he is trying to find ways to win enough votes to pass a background checks bill.

“The vice president made it clear that he is, that many are trying, to understand why certain elected officials voted no,” said Johnson, who is also chairman of the National Law Enforcement Partnership to Prevent Gun Violence. “And he has, as well as many of us, reached out to these individuals and are trying to understand, ‘Why did you vote no?’ And that effort is under way.”

People who attended the meeting also said Biden told the group that he didn’t want to hear criticism from them in the news media if he hadn’t heard it first in person.

“He said he wanted everybody to know there or privately later whether they were with him,” said a person who attended the meeting. “He said he didn’t want to be surprised. He said he wouldn’t take it personally, but he didn’t want to find out after the fact.”

And while Biden asked the law enforcement officials for input, one who attended said the meeting was more of a request from the vice president for support than a discussion about what to do next.

“It was a typical dog-and-pony show,” Kennard said. “He does all the talking. We do all the listening.”